I had been getting daily updates from my father in law about turkey movements on his 20 acre piece of land near Detroit Lakes. He has been telling me about a BIG gobbler and I was going to be on the lookout for him. Friday morning May 3rd found me set up and listening to the turkeys gobble like crazy. There were probably 3-4 toms gobbling with most of them in the woods right in front of where I was set up. At 7:00 I saw the big tom come out of the woods and gobble like crazy about 130 yards down the road from where I was and he wanted nothing to do with my decoys or calling. Over the next hour the gobbling slowly died and I decided to go in and have some breakfast. At 10:00 I head back out and got setup in the same area I had seen some hens at earlier that morning. So I do some calling every 5-10 minutes and then I think I heard a gobble. I wait a few minutes and call again...gobble. so another few minutes pass as I slowly slid over towards the direction I heard him gobble from get reset up and call again...GOBBLE! He is close and closing the distance. Call down, gun up then I see him walking through the snow and ice. I wait for him to get out of the woods then go into strut as he sees my decoys and clearly see that his spurs have nice sharp ends and then...BOOM! The first shot must have been slightly off target as he starts to stumble and I hit him one more time.

I go over grab him and start walking back to grab my stuff and I hear more gobbling. So I took the remaining shells out of my gun and put it aside. Then grab my call and start calling back to the toms. Next thing I know 7 jakes come out of the woods so I played with them for about 5-10 minutes. They would turn to walk away and then I would call. 3-5 would gobble and I quietly chuckled to myself. It was a nice way to end my Minnesota season.

The 3 year old tom weighed slightly over 21 pounds and had nice 1 inch and 7/8 inch spurs and a 9.5 inch beard.

Good luck to all of you still hunting.

Dewey

Last edited by dewey on May 9th, 2013, 8:12 am, edited 2 times in total.

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will." --Mahatma Gandhi

"Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat."--F. Scott Fitzgerald, American writer

That's a great story Dewey!! It's always good when a plan comes together and having a good scouter ahead of time is always a great help. I always enjoy your good comments and value the advice you share with us. Good luck on ll your future endeavors.

Good job Dewey. Sounds like a very nice bird and I can't wait to see the pics with the little man. After the winter you guys are going through I'm glad to hear the Jakes have made it. Looks like next year will be fun also.

very pretty gobbler dewey that birds color on fan is beautiful man ive seen guys shoot turkeys in NE,KS & OK & call birds with that color on there fan rio grandes lol very cool bird most every bird i shot down in SE MN has that dark brown almost burgundy/purple in color on the tail fan the color bird you shot up north are few & far between in SE MN??? i did tag a bird similar to urs in SW WI last yr i called him a ginger color bird like a red head lol

great pics & great turkey dewey happy you had success in MN way up north again this yr ur little man looks excited as well!!!

Last edited by turkey junky on May 7th, 2013, 7:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.